Winemaker Notes
This Shiraz honors the vision of pioneer Clare Valley winemaker Jim Barry. In 1964, Jim purchased 70 acres of prime land from Duncan McRae Wood and planted his first vineyard with Shiraz. It was an inspired choice of both grape variety and location.
Mixed dark berry fruits on the palate, vibrant acidity and fine grain tannin lead into a long, persistent finish. Great drive and depth of flavor, a touch of earthy complexity, and a seamless structure.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
In typical Clare Valley fashion, this is both muscular and fresh, due to the region's unique climactic conditions. Heady notes of ripe plums and brambly berries are backed by secondary characters like beef jerky, savory herbs, boot polish and oak-based vanillin. The palate is powerful and chiseled with elevated acidity and taut, drying tannins. Fruit is concentrated and supported by plenty of oak. Protein and decanter are both necessities here.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
The Clare Valley is actually a series of narrow north to south valleys, each with a different soil type and slightly different weather patterns along their stretch. In the southern heartland between Watervale and Auburn, there is mainly a crumbled, red clay loam soil called terra rossa and cool breezes come in from Gulf St. Vincent. A few miles north, in Polish Hill, is soft, red loam over clay; westerlies blowing in from the Spencer Gulf influece this area's climate.
The differences in soil, elevation, degree of slope and weather enable the region to produce some of Australia’s finest, aromatic, spicy and lime-pithy Rieslings, as well as excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with ripe plummy fruit, good acid and big structure.
Clare Valley is an isolated farming country with a continental climate known for its warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights—perfect for wine grapes’ development of sugar and phenolic ripeness in conjunction with notable acidity levels.